Naruto: Free Agency!
by max3833
Summary: Konoha desperatly need new recruits, and it looks like it's up to the Konoha 12 to find enough missing-nin and other warriors to fatten the ranks of the village. This cannot end well. Multi-cross-Bleach, Gintama, Full Metal Alchemist, etc.
1. The Search Begins!

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!

Max3833 presents…

Naruto: Free Agency

* * *

Tsunade had a problem.

No, the slug princess had a huge gapping crisis on her hands. She had just accepted the job of Hokage, after her old beloved sensei had died fighting her old and slightly less beloved teammate to a standstill, and was now in an occupation with a 100 percent mortality rate. But worse still, she did not know of the horrible condition that the Village Hidden in the Leaves itself was in. Half the ninja population was either killed, injured, or too young to be considered useful in time of war.

Okay, maybe she had signed up to quickly for this Hokage thing. She not only had to worry about Orochimaru, but any other of the big villages as well. Sure, Naruto had been an inspiration to her, but she was not expecting such a big rebuilding project.

"Tsunade-sama," the Fifth Hokage turned to see her assistant standing in the doorway, holding a plate with tea cups on it. "I think you might need a non-alcoholic drink to calm your nerves."

"Why can't it be sake," the older woman moaned as she began to sip, "this is tougher than I thought Shizune."

"Sir?"

"I have a village to rebuild," she said sadly, "and only half a ninja army to do it with. If the Sound were to attack now, we could hardly fight them off. Not to mention if Iwa, or Kumo, or even Kiri decided they wanted to wipe us off the map for good. Most of our chuunin were killed in the battle, our jounin are off on big missions, so we have to use our genin t defend our village. And I don't even want to think about the Akatsuki, they would be able to rip our defenses apart."

"And there not the only enemies too," Shizune said, "we also have to worry about other missing-nin who may want revenge for being forced out of Konoha. Let's face it, we're so undermanned that we may have to start to raise graduation rate at the Academy."

"That, unfortunately, won't work," Tsunade sighed, "Most who go to the academy aren't worth being assigned to squads; and even then, it would take years to rebuild those groups from scratch."

"We could try to promote the genin we already have," Shizune suggested.

"No way," Tsunade said, "even after the fighting during the invasion, most of them are still to raw, they need more missions before they can gain any rank."

"Well Tsunade-sama" the younger woman said incredulously, "It's not like we can pick up talented and experienced fighters just out of thin air. Every village system works by having an academy, where the youth are trained, building a new crop of ninja for each year, which is meant to resupply the villages with talent each year. No one has a faster way of making ninja unless you want to listen to Danzou, and turn young children into pure weapons, which even then will not be fast enough to suit our need."

"I just wish there was a faster…wait a minute," Tsunade said, before turning back to her assistant, "name the enemies you listed again!"

"Sound, Iwa, Kumo, Kiri," the young woman began to sound off, "Akatsuki, missing-nin-"

"That's it!" Tsunade shouted out happily, "our source of new talent!" She then grabbed her young assistant, and began to run out to the public library for ninja use.

* * *

"I can't believe that Kakashi-sensei is making us read this crap!"

Konoha's number one knuckle-headed ninja was groaning as he read the scroll he had been assigned. Ever since Kakashi had been forced to take long missions away from the village, after his long healing process of course, the three younger members of team seven had been forced to simply read for training. While this bothered Naruto, he was not the one in the worst mental state.

No, that title belonged to one Uchiha Sasuke, the number one rookie of his graduating class, and Kakashi's favorite student. He had also designated himself as the man who would kill his brother, the legendary Uchiha Itachi, the most famous missing-nin in Konoha history, and murderer of all his family save Sasuke. He was adored by Sakura, the third member of team seven, and a rival of Naruto. This unfortunately meant that whenever Naruto began to advance as a ninja, Sasuke's fragile self-esteem crumbled. He also had been humiliated by his brother in their first fight, only a few months before when Naruto was searching for Tsunade.

'I need Kakashi to get back soon,' he thought to himself, 'I need to get stronger.'

And the obligatory "I think Sasuke is nuts" comment has been made, so let's get back to the real hero of the story.

Naruto was quietly reading over a history of Konoha and Kiri relations. They had actually been the main opponents in the first two Great Ninja Wars, but due to Kiri's collapse around thirty years before, they had been at peace during the third. He began reading about the bandit ridden islands that existed along the border between the Land's of Fire and Water. Apparently, many bandits from here were among those Gato had hired for his attempt to take over the land of waves. Suddenly, he raised his head to see the blur of both Tsunade and Shizune rush into the library, and begin ripping books out of the shelves.

"What are you doing grandma?" Naruto asked Tsunade. Her answer was a book that slapped him upside the head.

"Quiet kid," she said angrily, "I'm looking for something really important."

"Is there anything we can do to help, Tsunade-sama," Sakura asked, not knowing that she was actually annoying the hard at work Hokage. She too met in battle with a large book, and she too lost horrifically. Finally, after about three minutes of sorting through books, Tsunade smiled as she picked up one particular book. As she tore through the book, her smile began to widen, until finally, after finishing reading it, she burst out in cheer.

"Yes, there is no rule against it!" she shouted, jumping up and down like a school girl, "There is no rule against it!"

"I think the Hokage has gone crazy," Sasuke said rather ironically.

"No fooling," Naruto said, as he finally rose up with a large lump on his head.

"Okay," Tsunade said as she calmed down, "Naruto, you go get your class together, along with the other team that made it to the third round in the Chuunin exams, and meet me in my office in three hours, I just have a few more things to arrange before I put my plans into motion."

As Shizune rushed after her master, still unsure of what the Hokage was thinking, the members of Team Seven were all thinking, 'what has gotten into her?"

They were about to find out.

* * *

'I can't believe that the counselors agreed to this,' Shizune thought with a sweat drop, as the assembled eleven genin and one chuunin stared at their leader and her assistant with confused stares.

"Hey old hag," Naruto shouted at his grandmother, "Why did you call all of us here?"

His answer was another book in the face. As Hinata Hyuga and Rock Lee, the members of the group who liked Naruto the best, attempted to revive their beloved, if not incredibly stupid friend, Tsunade bean to spell out her mission for them all.

"As you all know," she began, as Hinata tried her best to heal the boy of her affections without touching him, which incredibly hard to do, "Our Ninja force is beyond depleted. We have been forced thin and widen our soldiers all over the nation, dangerously leaving the village open to attack. So, I was left to the question, how do we rebuild our ninja army quickly with a great amount of talent and technique."

"Well," Tenten, Lee and Hinata's cousin, Neji, teammate said, "We were taught at the academy, so are you accelerating the graduation rate."

"Nice guess, but that is exactly what Shizune fist said," the Hokage replied, "unfortunately, the talent would be suspect, and they would be little more than cannon fodder for the far better trained opponents from Sound and anywhere else that may try to attack."

"Are you going to ask the Sand to send more of their ninja," Sakura reasoned.

"No," Tsunade said with a sigh, "that was actually never discussed, most likely because they too are so depleted from the fighting that they would not be able to help us and themselves at the same time." Sakura blushed at the reprimand from one of her idols.

"Our plan actually had to go through a lot of legal work," Tsunade said, "and I was only able to get it through by promising that only you twelve would be off doing this. We are going to be the first ninja village to …RECRUIT MISSING-NIN!"

The young shinobi just stared at her, all with sweat drops at her apparently incredibly revolutionary statement. It was finally Ino, Sakura's rival, who broke the silence.

"Mam," she said, "Aren't missing-nin known for their incredible disloyalty? Why would we recruit them when they just might turn their backs on us when they get the chance?"

"The first thing you have to learn about missing-nin is that they are not all traitors to their village," Tsunade explained, "Let us first take the Kiri for an example. They are known for having many bloody coups, and when an old Mizukage gets kicked out, usually most of his followers are kicked out as well. So in many cases ninja are kicked out of their village for simply having differing views from their kage. This means that many missing-nin are actually those who were betrayed, making them the ones who were betrayed. You are also to recruit any other warrior who has the talent to be a ninja, but does not have the training."

"I must ask, Tsunade-sama," Shino, Hinata's teammate spoke up, "To only assign the twelve of us to this task, it would seem to me that it would be incredibly difficult to bring in more than perhaps a few truly strong prospects. Why only send us on this?"

"The truth is, you are the only ones I could get, all the other Ninja had to be dedicated to the rebuilding process or otherwise taking care of some, intelligence mission," she said sadly, "So I know that it might be hard to get ninja to join you when you all are so young, so I did authorize a reward for you all for each time you all brought in a new prospect. I will first determine the strength of the new candidate, and then, after assigning him a rank, will give you a reward I deem fit. This could be anything from extra money, to a new technique, to a promotion in rank."

"But I thought we could only become chuunin after passing the Chuunin exams," Sakura said questioningly.

"Think Sakura, there are dozens of chuunin in the village, not all of them could have passed the exams, now could they?" Tsunade said sarcastically.

"So in other words," Shikamaru grumbled, "You are expecting us to go risk our lives in the slight chance that we might be able to bring in some questionable help?"

"Yes."

"…Troublesome."

* * *

Naruto ran into his small apartment, rifling through all the materials he had. He needed to pack as quickly as possible, if he wanted to get out before the rest of the recruiters. He was going to bring in the strongest one and get that promotion to chuunin if it killed him.

"Alright!" Our hero shouted excitedly, "Look out missing-nin! Prepare to get recruited!"

* * *

It had been two days, and he had found nothing. Maybe just rushing straight out the village had been a bad idea. I mean, it's not like he had any plan of where to find this new talent to recruit.

"Hum," Naruto said, opening up a box of instant Ramen, "Where do really tough people live?" he then quickly pulled out a map that he had been forced to take by Tsunade. Apparently, she did not trust him with directions. Now why would she think that?

Anyway, he began to look at it, and pointed to Konoha. "Okay, I left the North Gate," he made a little line with his finger, "and ran for two days straight. So that means, I should be, right about," he pointed to a line between the land of fire and a small buffer state south of the land of lightning, "here!" He then looked at the surrounding areas. "Hum," he began, "I could go towards Lighting Country, but that would probably upset Kumo. They are known for keeping a very tight lock on behavior in their borders," he then traced his finger a few miles to the East, to see the Land of Waves, "Yeah, all go see Inari and Tazuna and see if they can help me find some kind of idea about where I should go looking."

As Naruto sped off, he did not notice the two beings hiding in the trees, who quickly jumped to the top of the branches and began to speak with one another.

"I can't believe they would let the Nine-Tail out of the Village alone like this," a blue faced man, Kisame the Shark, cackled, "This almost makes this too easy!"

"Quiet Kisame," his partner, Uchiha Itachi reprimanded, "We should be grateful. Akatsuki suffered a major loss when the Five-Tailed and Six-Tailed escaped. We now have moved only farther behind schedule, with only the Seven-Tailed beast in custody, we must take little Naruto if our organization is to return to its normal strength. But still, let us hand back, and see what the boy is doing."

The two disappeared in a flash, diving back to trail the boy for as long as needed.

* * *

AN: Well, my first chapter is done.

It always fascinated me. How did Konoha rebuild with such a shortage of ninja after the Sound Invasion. So it got me thinking, they used free agency, the process of going out and finding talent elsewhere and recruiting and bringing it in for you yourself to use. I thought this would be a fun way to make Naruto explore the ninja nations before he left with Jiraya. Even more importantly, I think this will be a cool way to bring in crossover characters. These will include both heroes and villains, and of course some guys in between.

Pairings wise, well, this is in the Naruto and Hinata section, so what do you think.

Also, if you have any suggestions of characters, send them in. I already have several, but more would be appreciated. Especially in review form. And please understand that I am an American, so many of the Japanese terms will be missing. I don't have spell check and writing this in Americanized Japanese would be a pain.

See ya soon, or not considering how school and all other parts of my life are going.


	2. The Monsters of the Land of Water!

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!

Max3833 presents…

Naruto: Free Agency

* * *

Naruto smiled as he ran up to the great bridge that connected the lands of Fire and Waves. As he ran up, he saw three people standing near the entrance to the bridge, apparently pointing out a freshly built statue. He smiled, as he recognized Tazuna, Inari, and Tsunami. He laughed, and shouted, "Hey guys!'

The three turned their attention to the boy in orange, and all of their mouths widened in great smiles. "Naruto!" Inari shouted happily, "You're back!" As the boys hugged each other, the old man quietly walked up to Naruto.

"Let's get some dinner in you," Tazuna said, "and we can show you your bridge!"

"What?" Naruto asked, confused until he saw a plaque on the side of the bridge entrance, with the words, "Great Naruto Bridge," spelled out in all capitals. The people of the wave had, unknown to our hero, named the bridge after him in order to honor him for helping free them from an evil business man named Gato. Of course Naruto, known for being hyperactive, did what any boy who had just had a colossal monument named after him would do.

It took approximately ten minutes for Naruto to stop freaking out.

* * *

"Thanks to you," Tsunami said, as she led the group through the market, "The market now thrives. We are trading with over three hundred ports through out the islands and other parts of the continent." She then sighed, and pointed to a man in a tan cloak lying on the street, "we have also become a refuge to poor fellows like him, he came from the islands surrounding Kiri, where he is trying to escape the constant war there. But refugees don't usually have the money, and go around begging for money. I guess this guy hasn't eaten for days." She then walked up to the man, and lifted his head, "Sir, I don't mean to intrude…"

The man who she had lifted up stabilized himself, groggily putting his arms down as anchors. He had dark skin, and white hair, and his eyes were covered with sunglasses. But the truly most noticeable feature he possessed was an enormous scar in the shape of an X right across his forehead.

"No thanks," the man said, "I need to get moving, I have a mission I need to complete."

"What," Naruto asked, "A ninja mission?"

"No," the dark man said, "A mission from God."

As the beggar began to disappear into the crowd, Naruto chuckled a little. "Yeah, and I'm the daimyo's wife."

After several steps, however, the man stopped. "Hey kid?" he asked Naruto loudly, "That's a ninja headband, are you one of them shinobi?"

"Sure am."

In a flash, the man jumped through the air, and attempted to slam his hand on Naruto. The boy was barely able to jump out of the way, causing the man to instead strike the ground. The ground splintered after several sparks came from his hand.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Naruto asked worriedly. The taller man removed his sunglasses, revealing deep red eyes.

"Ninja are a disgrace upon the gods;" he said slowly, "And I Ishbal Scar will make sure you never again breathe air!"

Scar lunged at the orange ninja, slicing up the wall that was behind Naruto after the boy dodged another strike. He was shocked as the building collapsed, with what appeared to be large gaping scars covering what remained of it.

'This guy,' Naruto thought, 'he's incredible. He can simply touch something, and make it fall apart. If he even grazes me, I'll be ripped to shreds.' He back flipped onto a nearby roof, as Scar simply stood there glaring at him. The larger man began to silently walk towards the building that the boy was standing on.

"It is pointless to run," Scar growled, "eventually you will tire, and then you will die, just like the others." He then opened the left flap of his jacket, revealing over thirty shinobi protectors, all ripped from the ninja he had killed. They had all Naruto was frozen, shocked at the sheer number of deceased shinobi, as Scar calmly walked across the street. Tsunami desperately tried to hold Inari back, not wanting her son to engage the frightening man. Her father, who had already fought several powerful foes, held no such fears of the renegade killer.

"Hey you!" Tazuna screamed at Scar, causing the dark man to stop approaching the structure, "You leave him alone!"

"Or else what?" Scar asked sarcastically, only to turn and see several men carrying crossbows standing behind the three civilians.

"Or else these guys will make you takoyaki," Tazuna said, as the men let loose a hail of bow bolts at the dark skinned man. He dodged under the first arrow, and then, grabbed the second, and then sliced it in half with his weird jutsu. He then saw that even more soldiers were coming to help the boy, and that this was not his best moment to strike.

"I'll be back ninja," Scar said ominously, "And next time I will have your hide." He then ran through an alley way, and soon disappeared in the maze of streets that created the town. Naruto simply jumped down from the roof where he had been hiding, looked at Tazuna questioningly, before speaking out what was on everyone's mind.

"What the hell is his problem?"

* * *

"I can't believe that I actually found the last surviving Ishbalin in a place like this," Kisame said, from the rooftop that he and Itachi had taken up, "I remember when me and the other Seven Swordsman destroyed that clan."

"Yes," Itachi said as a truth dawned on him, "I remember reading about that in your profile. You all slaughtered a giant clan with a legendary bloodline limit, the ability to disintegrate anything that they pleased by merely placing their hands on it. They did not appreciate the fighting in the mist village, so they left, causing the Mizukage to order their eradication. I heard that they killed over fifty mist shinobi before the Seven took them out."

"No," Kisame corrected, "they took out one hundred, including five squads of ANBU. The only one to escape was a boy no more than ten years old. He fled in a boat made by his father, who had been the leader of the clan. I remember that he actually tried to run up and fight me at first, so I swiped his head with my blade. The kid was still standing, so I hit him again, and then about five others rushed to help him. The little brat got put back in the boat and sent out onto the ocean while we finished off what remained of the clan."

"And this happened ten years ago," Itachi said, causing Kisame to nod.

"Right," the blue man said, "It was the first time the Seven fought together as one big unit. I can still remember how cute Zabuza and Kenshin looked when they each made their first kill on the battlefield."

"I also heard that their slaughter began the great purge," Itachi again asked, "Is that true?"

"Oh yeah," Kisame nodded, "The other clans thought that just letting the kage go around and slaughter people who didn't agree with him was awful, so then began the great purge and the decline of the village of the mist."

"It does appear that this Ishbalin blames all ninja for the loss of his family," Itachi concluded, "this may not bode well for our capture of the fox." He then turned, and motioned for Kisame to follow, "Come now, we must tie up one of your old loose ends."

Kisame sighed sadly.

"Everything is always my fault isn't it?"

* * *

Naruto, just now recovering from his near death, was doing one of his favorite activities. This was actually his third favorite thing in the entire world to do. The first was being a ninja. Ever since he was little, Naruto had always strived to be a shinobi. Unfortunately, due to the great Nine-Tailed Fox Demon being sealed inside his stomach, he was an outcast, and for the first part of his time in the academy, the teachers refused to even give him the time of day. That all changed when he met Iruka, the man who first was willing to consider him a human, and not a monster. Iruka helped Naruto reach his goal, and become a shinobi of Konoha.

The second most beloved part of his life was his friends. Iruka was his first friend, and then the members of Team Seven were the next. Kakashi was like the lazy uncle that you constantly wanted to hurt, but could not help but respect. Sakura…well she seemed like a friend any way. Guess the same went for Sasuke too. But then he met some other friends at the Exams. There was the brave Lee, who he had come to think of as his most friendly rival. Then there was Shikamaru, the lazy genius who somehow managed to kick ass and complain about having to do it. Shino was cool too, he could actually relate to the bug boy, considering they were both shunned for what they contained. Finally there was Hinata, the nice, shy girl who had given him medicine after his first fight in the third part in the exam. They had helped bring out his skill, and all of them were dear to him.

And finally, Naruto's third favorite thing in the world to do was eat. Yes, our hero seemed to be affected by a weird Japanese hero tradition, that they all are afflicted with bottomless stomachs. Yes, he could never seem to eat enough, whether it was his beloved ramen, freshly roasted fish, or even a simple plain bowl of rice. If there was anything that could pull our hero from training, it was food.

And right now, he was enjoying a tasty stew with crawfish and vegetables laced in the broth. He smiled as he sat and reminisced about his first visit to wave, and lapping up his fourth bowl of soup, he finally remembered why he had come to the Wave in the first place.

"Hey," Naruto said to the elderly man, "Tazuna, I need to ask you something."

"What is it kid?" Tazuna asked with concern.

"Well remember how I told ya I was on a mission," when the bridge builder nodded, Naruto continued, "well; I am looking for some really strong guys to bring back to the village."

"Now why would you be doing that?" Tsunami asked, worrying for her son's idol.

"Our village was recently attacked by the Sound," the ninja admitted, "and while my team is still intact, we not only lost a lot of ninja, we also lost the Hokage."

"You mean that old man that assigned you to protect me?" Tazuna asked sadly, "That's too bad kid."

"Well," Naruto continued, "We did get his student to take over, and then she sent all of my class out to go find new people to bring in."

"That would make sense," Tsunami said, "but Naruto, why would you come here, you know we have no ninja of our own."

"Well I thought Tazuna might know someplace where some really strong fighters live," the young ninja explained. Tazuna scratched his jaw, before his eyes widened.

"Hey, remember that guy on the street," Tazuna said, "If guys like that Scar live in the islands around the Land of Water, I am sure you'll find a great new ninja."

"That sounds awesome old man; I'll get right on it!" He said, before collapsing, "maybe after a little nap."

The three hosts sweatdropped.

* * *

At that very moment, on a small island near Water Country, a large group of bandits, pirates, and other ruffians stood in front of a small village. They were all flashing weapons, screaming out obscenities, and making a general nuisance of themselves. In the fronts stood a particularly large man, with a full beard and a giant ax.

"Alright men!" the giant shouted, "We are the fiercest band of rogues in all of Water Country. We can finally begin our quest to rid ourselves of that accursed Daimyo! Let's start with this village, and then move onto the capital!"

The crowd of men roared, fully intent on wiping out the entire village. That was before someone threw a small rock, which smacked the leader on the head, giving him a huge lump.

"Will you shut up!?!" A bald man shouted, as he lazily walked out of the village and then pointed a rather large spear at the leader of the bandits, "You ruined my nap!"

"You truly are such a boorish speaker," another young man, this one with long black hair and three feathers attached to his hair, said, "It truly fits your appearance, you are truly ugly!"

"Oh yeah!" the leader shouted, "Well get ready to die pretty boy!" The giant of a bandit charged across the field towards the two. He took the ax of his shoulders, and prepared to cut the two in half. When he reached them, he gave a mighty swing.

Crack!

The entire group of bandits were stunned. Standing, with his bare hand gripping the blade of the ax, was a man as huge as their leader. He had his hair in spikes, and his eye was covered with an eye patch. Even more revealing, were his scars. His entire face looked like it had been mutilated by a large number of blades.

"Oh," the man said to the bandit, "you want a fight do ya?" he then used his right hand, the one that was not holding the ax blade, to pull out a sword.

"Well then get ready for a fight!"

He then sliced the ax carrying bandit in half, smirking as the robber's blood covered his face. The group of bandits attempted to retreat, only for the three men to rush into the crowd of rogues and begin to massacre them. Sitting on the top of a roof was a young girl with a large smile and bright pink hair. Her smiled widened as the large man decapitated a fleeing bandit, and the blood and gore continued to flow. She sighed happily.

"I'm glad Ken-chan gets to have fun again!"

* * *

Naruto yelled happily as he began to board a small ferry that was going across the see to a small island just off the main Water continent. He was grinning, imagining the ease that he would have in finding a new strong ninja.

I wonder if he has heard of advil.

* * *

AN: Whoa, didn't think I was going to get this out so quickly.

Well, I hope you like the first characters I choose for this story. It was really fun to write, and I hope to get the next one out as soon as possible, but don't expect it for a while.

R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!


	3. Ikkaku! The Bald Warrior!

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!

Max3833 presents…

Naruto: Free Agency

* * *

Scar sighed as he sat under a small tree. He had been forced to leave the town, and was now hiding out in the woods around the island. Luckily, no one had spotted him, so he would be safe here for a while.

Scar laid back against a tree, reflecting on what had just happened. He had been so close to killing his first leaf ninja. Those stupid guards had kept him from continuing his glorious quest. He began to feel sleep overcome him. As his eyes began to close, he suddenly noticed several birds fleeing from the tree that he was leaning on. With eyes widened, he jumped away from the tree as it was split in half by a giant sword.

"Damnit!" Scar heard the swordsman swear, "I had hoped that we wouldn't let the Ishbalin know we were here. This could get messy."

The dust cloud settled, and Scar's eyes widened. There were two ninja's who were attacking him. The first was not very tall, but his eyes were just as red as Scar's, only they had weird black dots along the pupil. But what really shocked him was the other ninja. He was far taller than his compatriot, and his blue skin was incredibly creepy. But what really caused Scar to scowl was the sword wrapped up in paper. He remembered that sword very well.

"Looks like it is my lucky day," Scar grumbled, "I get to kill a couple of ninja, and I avenge my family for the wrongs done to it."

"Don't count on it shrimp," Kisame grinned, "It would take you a hundred more years before you are even close to beating me in battle."

"Well we will see about that!" Scar screamed, charging towards the shark-faced man. Kisame swung his sword at scar, intending to crush every bone in the man's body. But, Kisame's sword, while powerful, is not known for its speed. This allowed the dark-skinned man to jump over the swing, and land behind Kisame. Just as Scar was about to place his hand of death on the shark man, he heard something whizzing through the air. He turned around just in time to catch a kunai thrown by Itachi. As the steel dissolved in his hand, Scar again jumped away from the ninja.

"I'll admit," Kisame muttered as Scar stood across a clearing from him, "You have gotten better. But there is still no way you can ever touch one of us!"

"Wanna bet!" Scar shouted, before slamming his palm down onto the ground. This caused the ground in the clearing to quake, before suddenly, cracks and rocks jutted out of the Earth. This forced both Kisame and Itachi to jump to either side, isolating themselves from each other.

"Damn Ishbalin!" Kisame screamed, before noticing something running through the rocks and boulders. Scar raised his right palm, preparing to deal a death blow to his old enemy. Kisame again swung his sword, and actually connected this time. However, the blade actually connected.

But, by allowing the blade to graze him, Scar landed his hand on Kisame's left side. This caused part of Kisame's intestines to explode, covering the surrounding rocks in blood. Scar smiled as he was sent barreling into a nearby boulder.

"Damnit! Shit!" Kisame screamed, falling to the ground while holding his bleeding side, "You Bastard! When I get my hands on you, you will die!"

Scar slowly got up. He was bleeding profusely as he walked towards the writhing blue-man. This was it, he could finally avenge his family. As he prepared to deliver the finishing blow to the fish, he heard a blazing sound. He turned to see a black flame hurtling towards him. He just barely ducked, avoid the dark heat. Kisame glared as Itachi walked forward from the rock.

"Where were you!?!" he asked, though justified in being angry.

"I wanted to see if the stories about the ninja killer were true," Itachi explained, "and if he is able to bring you down, than he truly is a threat worthy of eradication."

"I don't plan on being dead any time soon," Scar told the shorter man, before realizing that Itachi was preparing for another attack. Just as Itachi completed his hand sign, Scar slammed his hand on the ground again.

* * *

"Thank you again!" Naruto shouted as the boatman began to return to Wave. He turned to the town that he had landed on. The town was bustling, and everything seemed normal. In fact, he couldn't understand why an island like this would be sending off refugees.

"Maybe it's some kind of problem on a nearby island?" Naruto guessed, as he began to walk into the town. The children of the town freely played with one another, bouncing around their toy balls and racing each other around the streets. This did not seem like a place to leave as a refugee. The more of the prosperous civilians that he saw, the more he could not understand what was going on. Suddenly, he ran into a tall man.

"Oops sorry," the boy in orange squeaked.

"No problem kid," the man said, as he began to leave, Naruto suddenly jumped up.

"Excuse me sir," Naruto asked, "Do you know why this town doesn't seem to have the same problems as the rest of Water Country?"

"Oh yeah," the older man pointed to a small building in the distance, "That is Kenpachi's guys. They just dealt with some bandits this morning."

"Thanks mister," Naruto said excitedly, "maybe I can recruit them to come to Konoha! They sound like they would be great ninja!"

"Yeah," the man chuckled, before he finally processed what was just said, "Wait kid! Don't do that! Kiri has sent people to recruit them, and they all are now buried in shallow…" He finally noticed that the boy was already out of hearing range.

"Stupid kid."

* * *

Naruto opened up the door, and saw that inside was a bar. The place was poorly lit, and you could barely see the face of the person you were talking to. Luckily, there were only two people in the bar. One was bald and was carrying a spear, the other had long black hair and a sickly attached to his side. They were both drinking from small cups, apparently, just chit-chatting. This meant that of course our hero was going to interrupt it.

"Hey!" he shouted, causing the two to glare at him, "are either of you Kenpachi?"

"What do you want with the boss," the bald man asked, "Surely a little runt like you don't want to fight him?"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, "I'm just waiting for a growth spurt! And actually, I wanted to see if you guys would be willing to join the ranks of the few, the proud, the Konoha Nin!"

Naruto was not happy as he saw the two fighters burst out laughing. "Kid," the bald man said, "the only way any of us would join your little ninja village, was if you could beat down our captain. And since you can't even beat me, than why should we even let you try to fight a demon."

"Oh yeah!" Naruto fumed, "I could easily beat you! You are just scared of me you cue-ball!" Immediately, Naruto realized he had said something wrong, as a dark shadow began to form over the man's head, and baldy jumped out of his seat and charged our hero. Naruto, thinking quickly, jumped over the bald man's head, just as his opponent's spear was swung at him. Naruto sighed, thinking he had evaded the attack, when he heard a crack.

"Gottcha," the bald man said, as the spear suddenly, broke into three parts, and the blade swung and ripped into Naruto's back. The boy howled in pain, jumping over a table to give himself cover.

"I see you thought that my weapon was a spear," the bald man taunted Naruto, "you were wrong, it is a three part pole! That means that when ever I want, I can send my chakra through the staff, allowing me to split it. This means that I am far less limited in close combat than a normal spearman. Oh yeah," the bald man turned and smiled at Naruto, "it is customary for the warriors in battle to tell their opponents their names, that way, when one of them dies, they will know the name of their killer. So, my name is Ikkaku Madarame, and I am looking forward to this fight!"

"Well," Naruto shouted back, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I am going to be the next Hokage!"

* * *

"So what is the damage?" Tazuna asked one of the foremen as he looked at the devastation of the field.

"We have found that the damage is consistent with the attacks made by Scar earlier, so we have reason to believe that he was in the fight here," the man said, "we also have burn damage, and some marks from a large club, so we have reason to believe that he was in some kind of battle. Also, we have reasons to believe that Scar himself has spilt a large amount of blood, and," he suddenly held up a blood stained jacket with ninja protectors sewed in, "we have found his jacket."

"Try to find the bastard," Tazuna ordered, before looking at the now red jacket, "well even if he is alive, at least he won't be operational for a while."

Up in the tree tops, both members of the Akatsuki stared down at the landscape. Kisame was having a hard time of it, the bandages that were applied barely able to keep back the blood.

"Damn Ishbalin," he cursed, "If I ever get my hands on him, I swear I will rip out his throat with my teeth!"

"Calm down," Itachi said, "we need to find the nine-tails. We can't get into another confrontation until we find him. You are too injured, and I have used up too much chakra. Let's just finish the mission and then we can worry about your mistake." The both disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

"My this is interesting," Yumichika admitted as he watched Ikkaku fight Naruto, "This kid has actually managed to avoid all of Ikkaku's strikes, not counting the first one, and he has yet to even use a jutsu. There is actually a chance of Ikkaku losing. But," Yumi just stared at the boy, "if he wins now, than he is guaranteed death against the boss."

"Who is guaranteed death," the metro-sexual heard a deep voice ask him. He turned to see the tall man that was his leader."

"Just some kid that looks like is going to beat Ikkaku," Yumi said, "nothing to special."

"Well," Kenpachi sat down, with a small pink blob hanging from his shoulder, "let's watch, this might be an interesting day after all."

Ikkaku, despite Naruto's injury, was finding it hard to even land one blow on the kid. Naruto was always using his agility to keep himself out of the range of Hozokimaru, and even though the wound Ikkaku had inflicted had been rather deep, it appeared that the cut was no longer bleeding.

"Hey bald boy!" Naruto shouted, putting his hands into a familiar sign, "Let's see you deal with this." Suddenly, the field was covered in smoke, which hung in the air for a moment. Then, as the smoke dissipated, there was not one, but five Naruto standing in front of Ikkaku.

"Ha," Ikkaku laughed, "simple ninja tricks, "those things are just illusions, they can't hurt-OW!" it was at that moment that one of the clones fists collided with the bald man's head. He jumped backwards, barely able to keep his footing.

"I suppose that if I had been using normal clones," one of the Naruto's chuckled, "you would be right. But these are shadow clones, and their fists hurt just as much as mine do. Let's get him boys!"

"This just got interesting," Ikkaku cackled, swinging his spear above his head, swiping the first clone in half, causing it to explode in a cloud of smoke. "So they explode on contact? That is useful to know!" He then slashed a second causing it to explode as well. He smirked as the three remaining Narutos glared at him. They then jumped to different sides of Ikkaku, and smirking, they charged at the bald man.

"You fool," Ikkaku shouted, "You think attacking me in different directions would neutralize me!" He used his spear as a fan, spinning it at high speed, allowing him to strike all three of the orange boys at once. But instead of hitting the real Naruto, all three of them exploded on colliding with the blade of the spear. "What, where is he? The Side, above?"

"Below!"

In one great burst, Naruto jumped out of the ground, and his fist collided with Ikkaku's jaw, sending the baldy flying into the sky. Then a clone appeared in the air, smirked, and kicked Ikkaku in the chest, causing him to hurtle into a nearby building. This left the man attempting to regain his composure, struggling to even stand up. But Naruto saw that Ikkaku was no where near completely beaten down. Quickly, he called down his clone, which began to spin chakra in the original Naruto's hand.

"I'm going to kill you kid!" Ikkaku screamed as he raced towards Naruto, waving his pole in a fury. Naruto smirked when he saw that his jutsu was ready.

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted, slamming the blue ball of energy into the bald man. This stopped Ikkaku in his tracks, and before long, he was spinning in the air. Soon, he had caught enough speed that he was sent hurtling backwards, and this time did not go through one, but three buildings. It was soon obvious as the dust cleared from the wreckage that Ikkaku would not be getting up. He was bleeding from over a dozen visible places, and it looked like he had suffered some head trauma.

"Alright!" Naruto shouted, before turning to where the frilly man had been sitting, "Now will you take me to your boss? I want to see if he is actually worth fighting my awesomeness? I doubt it if he is anything like baldy here!"

"Oh really now?"

Naruto realized he had again said something wrong as a shadow covered him. He looked upwards and saw a gaint of a man standing in front of him. He was over seven feet tall, and he looked like he weighed a ton. His hair was spiky and the top tip gave him the appearance of someone even taller. But it was the man's scars that caused fear to rise in Naruto. They were like that torture expert's scars. But this guy looked less mysterious; and more flat out crazy like that snake lady from the forest of death. All Naruto could do was slowly back away.

"Where are you going kid?" Kenpachi Zaraki asked Naruto, "All I want is to have a little fun with ya!"

* * *

AN: Whew, that was a tough chapter to make. I wanted to show that Naruto is still the same old kid that most of us loved in the first series, not that whiny bitch in the second. Yes, I mad Ikkaku have a rather short fight, but he was a bad match for Naruto, a kid who has already dealt with a long range opponent before. (Zabuza) Don't worry; Kenpachi will have a whole chapter to himself and whatever side story I can find for the chapter. But more seriously, because I know we have some strict constructionists on the sight, I wanted to explain some things.

First of all, yes Scar was able to wound Kisame and came very close to killing him. This does not mean that Scar is an S-class fighter. He is actually somewhere around the A-class range, so according to some, he should not even be able to touch any of the Akatsuki. For that, I have a few points of rebuttal.

Scar's bloodline is extremely dangerous. Not even Itachi can blow apart a person's body by simply touching him, so that alone evens the playing field.

Scar was completely focused to killing Kisame, revenge is his total goal, and if he ides killing Kisame, the world will be a better place for it. Kisame wants to live, and he has no kind of commitment that Scar has.

Kisame was overly confident. He remembered Scar as a little boy, not a man with the ability to do serious damage to Kisame's own body. This blunder of over confidence cost the fish-man.

Finally, the way that Scar made the terrain made it hard for Kisame to swing with full power and speed. This allowed Scar to land his hand on Kisame's side, and blow out his guts. And believe me, for a guy without super healing, that is a knockout punch.

So thank you if you actually read that, and I hope to get out the next chapter soon, though considering my other projects, that may be a while. Oh well, chow!


End file.
